What Really Happened In The Ultimate Warrior And Rick Rude's WWE Backstage Fight

The Ultimate Warrior and “Ravishing” Rick Rude were phenomenal rivals inside the squared circle. Rude found a way to elevate the Warrior’s in-ring work, allowing them to put together entertaining matches from their clash at WrestleMania V which saw Rude upset Warrior to win the Intercontinental Title, to their SummerSlam 1989 rematch in which Warrior regained the gold. Then they had another memorable match one year later at SummerSlam 1990 when Warrior defended the WWF Title against Rude inside a steel cage. 

Despite their famed televised encounters, however, their most interesting clash took place away from the cameras when they came to real-life blows. 

The Ultimate Warrior

The Ultimate Warrior and Rick Rude arrived in the World Wrestling Federation in the same year of 1987, and they had already worked together in Texas’ WCWA when Dingo Warrior clashed with Rick Rude. 

Jim Hellwig was very much everything Vince McMahon looked for in a pro wrestler, with the look and intensity to rise to superstardom in the WWF. A skill Warrior lacked, however, was wrestling skill. Hellwig was a face-painted bull in a China shop, clumsily throwing clotheslines and strikes as though he was being attacked in a dark room. 

To compensate, though, Warrior's matches were kept short, which only added to the mystique and aura of the Warrior. To the fans, Warrior only needed seconds to crush his opponents.

Quickly growing in popularity, Warrior steadily rose up the card and by mid-1988, only Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan were ahead of him in the babyface pecking order. WWF management rewarded Warrior’s popularity at SummerSlam 1988 when he answered the Honky Tonk Man’s open challenge and defeated him in under 30 seconds to win the Intercontinental Title in what is probably the greatest short squash match in WWE history. 

With the win, The Ultimate Warrior had captured the “workhorse” title belt in the WWF despite his still limited capabilities inside the squared circle.

Those limitations also led to a negative reputation in the locker room for Warrior, as he considered way too stiff in the ring. His clubbing blows legitimately clubbed his opponents, while the Honky Tonk Man was so worried about receiving Warrior’s finisher, he made sure Jim Hellwig performed his running splash to the Elvis impersonator’s front instead of his back. 

On top of being green inside the ring, Jim Hellwig was extremely anti-social and regularly shunned his colleagues. Whether this was caused by ego or shyness is unknown, but it didn’t help Warrior’s reputation amongst his peers. Regardless, the locker room weren’t in a position to do anything due to Warrior’s push and high standing with Vince McMahon. 

Rick Rude

A certain ravishing wrestler was more respected in the locker room when he arrived in 1987. Rick Rude has been described by friends as caring and loyal, but also somebody you wouldn't want to p*ss off. Rush was about honour, and if you disrespected him or one of his closest friends, there would probably be consequences. The fact that Rude was an ex-amateur boxer only made that threat of harsh reprisal more real.

Inside the ring, Rude was a consummate ring general with a knack for selling for his babyface foes. There was once an entire Twitter account dedicated to Rude's unique sells of the atomic drop, such was his work inside the squared circle. 

While he was considered easy to work with, there were instances of Rude losing his cool on errant opponents. In one of his last matches in 1994, Rude legitimately stiffed and pummeled WCW enhancement talent Mark Starr. Either Starr had struck him too hard in the face and Rude retaliated, or perhaps there was some unresolved pre-match issue.

What was clear is that when Rick threw the crosses and hooks at Starr's chin, there was no working stomp to go with them.

The Ultimate Warrior vs. Rick Rude On-Screen

Between reckless Warrior's multi-faceted bad reputation and tightly wound Rude's ethos of zero tolerance, you would think they'd be incompatible inside the ring. That there was too much potential for combustibility, and that things would surely go sideways. You would be wrong, at least for a while. 

Warrior and Rude feuded for much of 1989 over the Intercontinental Championship. With Vince McMahon looking to position Warrior for a future main event run, the company needed him to work longer matches. Rude was the ideal opponent to carry Warrior, while he was credible enough to hold his own against the scripted force of nature that was Jim Hellwig. 

Their programme began when Rude attacked Warrior during a posing contest at Royal Rumble 1989. Then Rude, following an assist from his manager Bobby Heenan, went on to win the IC Title with a tainted pinfall at WrestleMania V. 

The post-match shenanigans called for an angry Ultimate Warrior to go after Heenan, but there were already issues between the two men due to Heenan imploring Warrior in the summer of 1988 not to hit him in his already-injured neck during their Loser Wears A Weasel Suit house show matches. Warrior ignored Heenan’s pleas, however, and it was more of the same at WrestleMania as Warrior unsafely dropped Heenan during a post-match gorilla press slam. 

After WrestleMania, the programme between Rude and Warrior continued on house shows and culminated at SummerSlam 1989 when Warrior regained the IC Title following a distraction finish involving Roddy Piper. 

This moved Rude into a programme with Hot Rod, while Warrior transitioned to a programme with Andre the Giant, who was winding down his WWF career by this point. Andre was also beyond caring at this point, which is why when Warrior was too rough with the Giant in house show match after house show match, Bobby Heenan recalled Andre sticking out his giant fist one night and allowing a charging Warrior to run straight into it at full force. 

Though his reputation as a careless worker clearly preceded him, Warrior was ordained WWF Champion in April 1990 when he defeated Hulk Hogan inside the Toronto SkyDome at WrestleMania VI in what was a classic WrestleMania match.

With Warrior needing heel challengers, he ended up in a feud with Rick Rude once again, with The Ravishing One still being the only wrestler who could say he had pinned the Warrior before. At SummerSlam 1990, they would face off inside a blue-barred steel cage for the WWF Championship, but they were experiencing friction behind the scenes by this point. 

One notable incident occurred during a house show match between Warrior and Rude in early July. According to Bret Hart, Warrior had hit Rude with one unpulled punch too many, and so Rude forcibly wrestled Warrior to the mat and whispered to him that if he did it again, he would, "... rip his head off and shove it up his ass." According to Rude, Warrior “melted like putty” following the threat. 

The acrimony didn’t end there, however. Just days before SummerSlam, at a house show in Savannah, Georgia, the building issues between Warrior and Rude seemingly came to a head as once more, Rude believed his opponent was being careless inside the squared circle. 

Once they were back through the curtain after the match, a fed-up Rick Rude confronted the reigning WWF Champion and cautioned him to stop his thoughtless in-ring work. According to witnesses, Warrior said something to the effect of “I don’t have to listen to you” because he was the champion and he could work however he wanted. 

The Fight

This, as expected, didn’t sit well with Rick Rude and he proceeded to channel his extensive boxing prowess and floor the WWF Champion with one solitary punch.

There are other versions of the story, including one account from Ric Flair - who didn't join the WWF until the following year - claiming that Rude administered a longer beating after hearing Warrior trash talk him on the other side of the locker room. Those who were in the WWF at the time - like Demolition Smash - remembered the beating stemming from Warrior working too stiff, and then Rude ending the ensuing confrontation quickly. 

Post-Fight

Afterwards, the two men worked together at SummerSlam, where Warrior retained the gold. Rude then pivoted to a rivalry with The Big Boss Man, but walked out on the WWF following a monetary dispute in October 1990.

Warrior remained champion until January, when his reign was ended by Sgt. Slaughter. Over the ensuing five years, Warrior would leave the WWF three times for different reasons, until departing for good in July 1996.

Rude and Warrior would seldom cross paths after that August 1990 fight. That hastened brawl was the culmination of one guy stiffing one too many opponents, and then making the wrong guy mad when called out for his negligence.

Fights in pro wrestling happen from time to time, but rarely do two feuding headliners get into such a physical altercation. But that's what happened at the turn of the 1990s, when the designated heel finally had enough of the protagonist's rubbish.